Top finishers last year probably stayed strong. Big question is going to be 3rd or 4th down to 10th. Hearing a lot of turnover on a number of teams, so will be interesting to see who got it right. No obvious candidates at this point for relegation spots.

I'd say FC Premier, FCD Premier and FCD Waters are your top 3. Too early to tell which order they finish in. New players and chemistry will play a big role along with bigger rosters and managing substitutions properly. 4-10 a crapshoot. If I had to choose two that get relegated right now, I'd roll the dice and say Borgarello and Che's West team.

Watching both Solar Cates and Solar Deleon play this weekend in Summer Classic. They both looked really strong dominating in ball possession over FCD Red 02. The only competition in the tournament for either one of the Solar teams. But just like every other team with new players they will need to learn to gel together.

Soccer27 wrote:Watching both Solar Cates and Solar Deleon play this weekend in Summer Classic. They both looked really strong dominating in ball possession over FCD Red 02. The only competition in the tournament for either one of the Solar teams. But just like every other team with new players they will need to learn to gel together.

We are new to the '03s so it will be interesting to see how things play out. BB played '02 last year because he wanted to stay with friends. It will be interesting to see how the season unfolds. On BB new team almost half the kids are new. Already a good team, it will be interesting to see how quickly they bond. I could see the teams that start quickly will have the best success.

I have heard or seen turnover of 9 players, 10 players, and 9 players on 3 D1 teams, and know of 3 others with impact player losses (don't know how well those teams backfilled).

I don't think we'll know anything until around Gameday 6 of CL. After 2 rounds last year, FCD Premier was 0-2 and in last place, but won the league.

I'm sure we're in for a very competitive league this year, and only time will tell. For the big 3, did teams lose kids to DA? Did they get talented kids dropping out of DA? Did talent consolidate to fewer teams or stay dispersed? Did FC Premier avoid DA poaching of their difference makers?

With 5 FCD and 3 Solar teams, the thing I'm least looking forward to is looking at scores on the CL website. Always very useful to see that FC DALLAS YOUTH FC DALLAS Y tied SOLAR CHELSEA SOLAR CHELSEA 2-2.

Correction: Azzurri played really well in the tournament and showed they can compete with both Solar D1 teams. They will do really well in D2 and be a team to look out for as te season goes.

Good1stTouch wrote:

Soccer27 wrote:Watching both Solar Cates and Solar Deleon play this weekend in Summer Classic. They both looked really strong dominating in ball possession over FCD Red 02. The only competition in the tournament for either one of the Solar teams. But just like every other team with new players they will need to learn to gel together.

Soccer27 wrote:Soccer27, you guys had no other competition besides FCD Red?

Correction: Azzurri played really well in the tournament and showed they can compete with both Solar D1 teams. They will do really well in D2 and be a team to look out for as the season goes.

Good1stTouch wrote:

Soccer27 wrote:Watching both Solar Cates and Solar Deleon play this weekend in Summer Classic. They both looked really strong dominating in ball possession over FCD Red 02. The only competition in the tournament for either one of the Solar teams. But just like every other team with new players they will need to learn to gel together.

I agree with MUC on the top three, at least until proven otherwise.

Soccer27, you guys had no other competition besides FCD Red?

[/quote]

Yeah, I was going to say...Azzurri beat DeLeon 1-0 and tied Cates in the semis...lost on PKs. Both Cates and DeLeon looked strong, but I am not sure either dominated FCD either. I thought AYSES East 02 looked pretty solid too. IMO Cates slots slightly ahead of DeLeon, but an injury, "help" from above, or an off match will make it tight all around in D1. D2 will be a battle as well. I am sure that Azzurri isn't the only team that improved. I heard LP had a nice off season, I can't imagine that the relegated teams will be push overs, and I have heard the D3 teams are very physical. Good luck to all. This was a good tournament to prep for the season.

Azzuri matched up well against both solar teams. Deleon had a few opportunities to score but couldn't finish. One mistake on Deleon cost them a counterattack. Solar Deleon beat Ayces East 02 4-1. Against FCD Red, Solar Deleon controlled the tempo but a PK and a quick reset long ball was the difference.

Soccer27 wrote:Azzuri matched up well against both solar teams. Deleon had a few opportunities to score but couldn't finish. One mistake on Deleon cost them a counterattack. Solar Deleon beat Ayces East 02 4-1. Against FCD Red, Solar Deleon controlled the tempo but a PK and a quick reset long ball was the difference.

The beginning to high school soccer for some of these boys

True. I don't disagree. Both Cates and DeLeon had some good chances, but Azzurri did too. The DeLeon goal v FCD was 100% due to an error as well. It was a nice finish, but was ONE play that didn't happen again. The PK FCD got was just two steps inside the box, but the right call. That defender was just a hair late (and he is very good). The goals when the teams are pretty even come from capitalizing on mistakes and finishing the chances you get. I felt the competition was much more even than was initially described is all. Azzurri could have lost each of those games, but nobody scored a on them. Posts and crossbars and missed some the same way. That is soccer unfortunately. High school is upon them and it changes again. In some ways good. In other ways not so much. As I said, good luck this year. DeLeon has some really good players, and could be one to beat if they put it together. Cates as well.

muc03b wrote:I'd say FC Premier, FCD Premier and FCD Waters are your top 3. Too early to tell which order they finish in. New players and chemistry will play a big role along with bigger rosters and managing substitutions properly. 4-10 a crapshoot. If I had to choose two that get relegated right now, I'd roll the dice and say Borgarello and Che's West team.

This is going to be a tough one to pick this year. Like you said it will be a crapshoot for 4-10. I have no dog in the hunt for any of those teams but I think FCD West might be better than we think. I wouldn't be too surprised if they are a bit better than FCD Blue. Only time will tell.

muc03b wrote:I'd say FC Premier, FCD Premier and FCD Waters are your top 3. Too early to tell which order they finish in. New players and chemistry will play a big role along with bigger rosters and managing substitutions properly. 4-10 a crapshoot. If I had to choose two that get relegated right now, I'd roll the dice and say Borgarello and Che's West team.

This is going to be a tough one to pick this year. Like you said it will be a crapshoot for 4-10. I have no dog in the hunt for any of those teams but I think FCD West might be better than we think. I wouldn't be too surprised if they are a bit better than FCD Blue. Only time will tell.

That actually wouldn't surprise me. I just went with that based on West being the team from D2 and not really knowing much about them through tournaments, etc. Solar Sawyer has put up some admirable performances in tourneys to end the Spring and I can't imagine much turnover (if any) from them since they went from D2 to D1, so I didn't predict them to go back to D2. Looks like Sawyer and Solar Cates are playing in the Premier Cup this weekend (against each other Friday and 2 games each Saturday). They'll either be fine-tuned for Sundays Classic game or completely exhausted....

Last edited by muc03b on 8/9/2017, 8:07 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Clarification on opinion)

I have to think with all the changes and additions on most the teams there is going to be at lest 1 "upset" this weekend. Looking forward to the discussion after we get our first results. Good Luck to all.

Interesting weekend. Big surprise for me was the FC Premier's score in a loss on Saturday in SRPL. First game out of the gates are always unpredictable. Good to see FCD Premier represent well for North Texas. This week will be a good predictor for the rest of the season that separates top from bottom I think.

I agree this week will be a great indicator. FCD premier didnlook good Saturday in SRPL. They played a very weak OK team, which game FCD a good warm up. They tied 1-1 the folowing day. They picked up a few of DA boys. They Aren't very big in size but do have a lot of skill on the team

Like the details. I believe the teams that already have a game under their belts will have the biggest advantage for sure. I'm most interested in how FC Premier responds this week. Not my bb team, but solid coaching and a solid team last year. Could have just been that the Saturday SRPL game caught them off guard, or it might have exposed a weakness for other teams to take advantage of this year. I'm guessing it is more of the first than the later, but we will know in a few days.

The first week was kinda blah. A bunch or ties. Is FCD Borgello offense that strong ? The question is the unknown...... there are a few teams that didn't play last week. Those are the teams to worry about since no one hasn't really seen them go against anyone.

FC premier struggled against the OK team that FCD Premier tied the following day. I know they are a better team then they showed.

FCD Waters and Solar Deleon have yet to show the league what they can do.